USAID's FEWS NET

The goal of the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) is to strengthen the abilities of African countries and regional organizations to manage risk of food insecurity through the provision of timely and analytical early warning and vulnerability information. FEWS NET is a USAID-funded activity that collaborates with international, national, and regional partners to provide timely and rigorous early warning and vulnerability information on emerging or evolving food security issues. WebFirst is proud to be a subcontractor to Chemonics on the FEWS NET Project.

FEWS came to WebFirst with a need to radically improve its workflow process. The old workflow relied on a costly combination of a static web site and paper-based systems that required eight people to review and disseminate monthly reports to thousands of subscribers worldwide, particularly decision-makers in Africa. The timeline on reviewing and publishing the reports was approximately five days, but the actual time-to-press was close to ten days. These extra days had dire consequences for those in Africa who depend on the timely delivery of this information.

The latest version of the FEWS software incorporates a brand new approach to the country program centers. The public site now uses GIS products both in the field and on the web server. WebFirst developed the latest iteration of FEWS NET using our own custom geospatial database (combining UN data sets, with FEWS’s own lat/long spatial reference and polygon) in order to create the maps of FEWS NET countries. FEWS NET now allows USAID mission specialists in the field to overlay weather and hazard information on the maps to cross-register critical information from multiple sources. This cross-registration of information (weather, vegetation index, and geography) allows USAID and other policy makers to make critical decisions about where to send famine relief, humanitarian aid, and other logistics in a timely manner, where it is needed most. Mission specialists in the field can also build their own maps and upload these maps with reports to the FEWS NET system. WebFirst is part of the Chemonics team on the FEWS NET project. The program has been expanded to include Latin American and Asian countries as well.